After serious accidents, which happened in tunnels in the last few years, most countries have established 'Task Forces' in order to evaluate the safety of existing tunnels and to establish new safety measures. Based on two actual examples, the new safety measures are presented in this paper on a practical view for the first and on a theoretical view for the second. In view of the recent events of the year 2001 (terrorism act on the 11th of September and the Gotthard fire on the 24th of October) particular attention should be turned on related safety aspects. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.